Conventionally, majority of containers used for containing fine particles for image formation (toner and developer) have been blow molding bottles and non-flexible rigid cartridges produced by injection molding. They are hard to deform and setting of the container to the main part of the image forming apparatus is easily performed. However, they are very bulky when collected and transported for recycle and are not satisfactory in terms of handling.
On the other hand, in recent years, a flexible toner container which is foldable has been proposed and used. However, the toner container is made out of soft packing material composed of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), oriented nylon (ON) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE); setting to the apparatus directly is difficult because of deformation during transportation and coagulation of content in the container with a deformed state. And improper setting to the apparatus may also occur by a bended head portion of the container. The toner discharge capability and toner volume reduction capability of these easily deformed containers are deteriorated by deformation of the container. When cushioning material is used for packing material to overcome this problem, the quantity of packing material being discarded and packing cost increases or the transportation and storage efficiencies are deteriorated because of the increase in container size. In addition, the volume of the container increases (expands) to deform the container storage box under depressurized condition such as an elevation of 2,500 m, for example, because of sealed state of the container.
When an easily deformed container is used as a cartridge, the setting to the apparatus directly is difficult because of deformation during transportation and coagulation of contents in the container with a deformed state. And improper setting may occur because of a bended head portion of the container. In addition, the volume reduction of the container becomes difficult during toner discharge, toner discharge capability is not stabilized, the volume reduction of the container itself becomes incomplete and the handling at the time of resetting becomes difficult. When cushioning material is used for packing material to overcome this problem, the quantity of packing material being discarded and packing cost increases or the transportation and storage efficiencies are deteriorated because of the increase in size of the container storage box. Moreover, storage in transverse direction may be recommended in order to prevent coagulation of fine particles, which are the contents of the container, caused by the weight of fine particles.
Therefore, the packing method and the packing material, with which transportation of the deformable container without deforming the container is possible; the deformable container is easily taken out from the packed condition; a cushioning effect when falling is provided; the container is hardly deformed so that the setting to the main part of the apparatus is not affected even when the content is coagulated; and the above problems can be settled, had been desired.
In addition, it is also required to be able to keep the easily deformed flexible container with no difficulty when the content of the flexible container expanded at the time of being contained, transported and stored; to easily take out the flexible container filled with the content; to contain, collect and reuse the flexible container in the volume reduced state after usage.
On the other hand, a corrugated cardboard box with a partition attached which can pack and protect the contained goods and reduce the chance of deformation of contained goods has been proposed in Patent Literature 1. With this kind of corrugated cardboard box with the partition which can contain two pieces of contained goods, however, when the unit of the contained goods is one piece, one of them has to be taken out from the corrugated cardboard box and sold without being contained in the corrugated cardboard box. If the contained product is not used immediately after the purchase, the form of the container collapses and when the content coagulate in the deformed container, setting of the product to the main part of apparatus becomes difficult. In addition, cushioning material increases in amount and packing cost increases, or the quantity of packing material being discarded also increases and transportation efficiency is deteriorated because of the increase in size of the container storage box itself. Furthermore, it is likely that the corrugated cardboard box takes the shape of a cuboid and has a poor design characteristic.
A container storage box which contains and stores a deformable container having a flexible region at least in part and is capable of discharging fluid content for image formation when placed in a container loading part of an image forming apparatus is proposed in Patent Literature 2. The container storage box has a rigid sidewall face at least in part which contains and store the deformable container while preventing random deformation of the deformable container. The rigid sidewall face regulates a configuration of the deformable container in a configuration accommodated in the container loading part while keeping one of direction and/or position of content outlet of the deformable container when the deformable container is placed in the image forming apparatus. The container storage box is made out of a plate material foldable in the form of box and has a square-shaped part composed of a number of sidewall faces having fold lines for retaining strength in the assembled state.
In this proposal, however, the container storage box does not have two fold lines which are not parallel to one another and there is no disclosure or suggestion regarding the closing mechanism which is composed of a pair of bed-type framing pieces of at least one of the end faces of small and large dimension and openable, closeable and capable of being assembled and disassembled by hand pressing.
[Patent Literature 1] Japanese Utility Model Application (JP-Y) No. 3039149
[Patent Literature 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2005-206242